These Actors Forged a Friendship Amid Cancer - Then Made a Movie About It

On Jan. 9, 2015, Grace Wethor's doctors found something unusual in her MRI. Having spent the past six months trying to figure out why her blood tests were out of range, she was finally diagnosed with an untreatable form of brain cancer. The prognosis: an eight percent chance of survival, and six months to live. "I was told there was nothing they could do for me, but I could stay in the hospital if I wanted," Wethor tells Popsugar.

Determined not to waste any precious time, Wethor moved to Los Angeles and started pursuing her dreams in film. It was here she met actor and musician Jillian Shea Spaeder, and the two quickly became inseparable. But how do you forge a friendship when you've just been told that time is not on your side? According to these two, it's more casual than you'd expect.

"Grace had a blood infection, and I had to come over and put meds in her IV. So I'm in gloves, and I'm meticulously pushing medication into her, panicking, but simultaneously giggling," Spaeder laughs. "I was like, this is so fun. I'm in my 'Grey's Anatomy' era."

Wethor ultimately defied all odds and has been cancer-free for over 11 years now, it's still important for her to have a strong support system, friends included. "I've learned that friendships look different when you're friends with me," Wethor says. "There's a saying in the cancer community: 'Cancer turns strangers into best friends and best friends into strangers,' and you just don't know who [will] be the people that show up."

Spaeder is one person Wethor knows will always show up. For Spaeder, being a good friend to someone who's just received a cancer diagnosis means being open and honest, holding space for good and bad days, and knowing both people may be affected by the illness in their own (albeit very different) ways. "It's [about] bringing the happiness, but also being there when they need to be upset . . . and offering to go to doctor's appointments, even though [Wethor is] never gonna take me up on it," she laughs.

Now 23 years old, Spaeder can hardly remember the first time she heard about Wethor's illness. "I never really think about it," she says. "But there's an occasional day every six months where I'll just break. It's a day of feeling all of it. And then the next day I wake up and I'm like, 'She's fine, she's fine, we're chilling,' and I push it down again."

Wethor deals with her own grief, too. She remembers how strange it felt to hit 10 years cancer-free (a major milestone in the cancer community). "I started realizing that this may just be the rest of my life," she says. She had simultaneously gained so much time, and lost so much, too. "I was talking to my therapist about mourning the life I didn't get to live because I was sick," Wethor says. After her therapist asked her about which life events she feels she missed out on, Wethor lamented not being able to have a prom. "So Jillian and I planned a prom for all of my friends."

Image Source: Courtesy of Grace Wethor / Jillian Shea Spaeder

This dynamic is one of the biggest inspirations for the film "Saving Buddy Charles," directed by Wethor, and written and produced by Spaeder. The film follows characters Sydney and Clara on their road trip to save a pet lizard, Buddy Charles. But unbeknownst to Sydney, Clara is harboring a life-altering secret about her health. "It was really interesting to see Jillian write ['Saving Buddy Charles'] from an outsider's perspective, because usually I'm the story," Wethor says. "But friends and family are affected by these illnesses as much as the person actually fighting the illness."

Spaeder knows that illness doesn't always lend itself to the most comfortable dynamics - onscreen or off. But it's still a lived reality for many people, herself included, and we shouldn't shy away from talking about it - the ups and the downs. The health scares and the DIY prom nights, the panicked IV pushes, the indie road trip films.

"My life isn't sad all the time because of this thing I'm going through. It's not all-consuming. It's just a piece of my life," Wethor says.

"A little blip," Spaeder offers.

"Yeah, a little blip," Wethor says.